Families can text the school a question, 24/7
A guardian can text a question to your school number any time — Elira answers from your verified school info, or hands it to your office with one link.
Guardians don't just receive texts — they can text back with a question, any hour, any day, in English or Spanish. Elira acts like a 24/7 member of your front office.
What Elira will answer on her own
Only what your school has put on file — settings you control on the School info page plus what's on your AI Knowledge tab:
- Office hours, phone, and how to reach staff
- What time school starts and lets out, including a regular half day
- Registration deadlines, required documents, and the registration link
- Your posted events (open houses, orientation, tryouts)
- Notes you've typed for her ("Parent Teacher Conference — 1PM dismissal")
- "What happens next" after registration, if you've filled that in
Every automatic answer comes only from that verified info. Elira never guesses — and she is deliberately strict about dates:
- "What time is dismissal Wednesday?" — she answers from your school hours, unless a note or event for that day says otherwise, in which case that wins.
- "Is there school Friday?" — she answers when a dated event or a dated note covers that day, and, once you've set up "Is there school tomorrow?", on any ordinary day inside your school year too. Your weekly school hours alone are *not* enough, because a normal-week schedule can't know about a holiday or a snow day.
- "Is there school on October 12?" — when a family names an actual date, that date is checked against your calendar, your notes and your school year before Elira is allowed to answer at all. If nothing on file covers that exact day, the question goes to your office even if your calendar is full of other dates. This is checked in our code rather than left to her judgement, so it works the same way in English, Spanish and Arabic.
When she's not sure — your office gets it
Anything Elira can't answer from your info (or anything sensitive — IEP specifics, medical, legal, discipline, money) goes straight to your office:
- The guardian instantly gets: *"Great question — I've passed it to the office team and they'll text you back here soon."* (in their language).
- The question appears in [AI Knowledge](/dashboard/ai-knowledge) on your dashboard, and your office email also gets a one-click Answer link — use whichever is handier. That email arrives with the subject AE - Family Question via Text - <your school name>, so it's easy to spot or filter.
- Whatever your staff types is texted back to the family — and Elira learns it for both the text line and the chat bubble on your website, so she can answer it herself next time.
Teach Elira from your dashboard
The AI Knowledge tab lists every question waiting for an answer and everything Elira has already learned. Answer one there and it trains both places Elira talks to families at once — no separate step for the website chat. The same tab holds Tell Elira notes, your staff directory, your calendars and documents, and your event flyers — so when a family asks for the open-house flyer, Elira can send the link.
Good to know
- Replies mirror the guardian's language (English, Spanish or Arabic) and stay short enough for a normal text message. A family who texts in any other language is never answered automatically — the question goes to your office with their original wording, so a person can reply properly instead of Elira answering in a language they didn't write in.
- A family who texted STOP is never replied to — opt-outs are always honored.
- Questions answered by your office build up Elira's knowledge over time: the more you answer, the fewer reach you.